12 BRITISH MUSEUM. 



Mr. C. Tate Regan, F.R.S., represented the Museum at the Annual 

 Conference of tho Museums Association at Douglas, Isle of Man, in 

 July ; and Dr. F. A. Bather, F.R.S., and Dr. W. T. Caiman, F.R.S., 

 at the Fourth International Congress of Zoology at Budapest iri 

 September. Mr. C. Tate Regan, F.R.S., accepted an invitation to 

 serve on a sub-Committee of the Committee of Civil Research to consider 

 plans for investigating the Great Barrier Reef, and Dr. G. F. Herbert 

 Smith served on another sub-Committee on geophysical surveying in 

 Australia. Mr. F. Laing was appointed a member of an advisory 

 committee set up by the Empire Marketing Board on the infestation 

 of stored products by insects. Mr. M. A. C. Hinton represented the 

 Museum at the Annual Congress of the Royal Sanitary Institute at 

 Hastings in July. Mr. P. R. Lowe, O.B.E., represented the British 

 Government at an International Conference on the protection of 

 migratory wildfowl held in London in October, and continued to serve 

 on the Advisory Committee appointed by the Home Secretar}^ under 

 the Wild Birds' Protection Acts. Mr. N. B. Kinnear represented the 

 Museum on a Conmiittee on the transportation of live animals set up by 

 the Zoological Society. 



Information with reference to the protection of animals throughout 

 the British Empire and in some foreign countries continued to be sup- 

 plied by the Colonial Office and the Foreign Office. A number of 

 enactments calcidated to retard the extinction of rare species give 

 cause for satisfaction, but there is reason to fear that the destruction of 

 the larger fauna is proceeding at too rapid a pace in many parts of 

 Africa. 



The main work of the scientific staff is the study and arrangement of 

 the collections in order that they may be used by other workers in 

 investigations that may be either economic or purely scientific. In 

 addition the staff deals with a large number of enquiries on matters of 

 economic importance, which are generally accompanied by specimens 

 to be named, either minerals, fossils, plants or animals. In 1927 insect 

 pests of stored products, wood-boring insects, mites infesting houses, 

 ticks parasitic on cattle, millipedes attacking strawberries and tomato 

 plants, and fungi causing disease or doing damage to timber and food, 

 were the subject o' numerous enquiries ; in each case the specimens 

 were determined and advice was given. 



Acquisitions. 



The most interesting acquisition of the year was an entire school of 

 about 130 False Killer Whales, stranded in the Dornoch Firth at the 

 end of October, and collected by Mr. M. A. C. Hinton. Two of these, 

 a bull and a cow, were sent to the Museum in the flesh and casts were 

 prepared from them ; the skeletons of the remainder were roughly 

 cleaned in Scotland and the work was completed at the Museum. In 

 addition to the interest attaching to these specimens on account of the 

 rarity of the species, it is expected that the material acquired will, when 

 worked out, throw much light on breeding, rate of growth, and variation. 



In this connection the thanks of the Trustees are due to the Board of 

 Trade, to Mr. J. L. Chaworth-Musters, to Sir Robert Brooke, Bart., 

 D.S.O., M.C., to Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Chance, and to Mrs. M. A, Russell, 

 for help of various kinds. 



